How to open the door? Investigating the link between leadership and employee voice

In this symposium, we aim to shed more light on the relationship between leadership and employee voice-that is, employees’ discretionary communication of ideas, suggestions, and concerns. Despite an increasing number of studies looking at how leaders affect voice behavior, a more nuanced understanding of the antecedent, mediating, and boundary conditions in the link between leadership and employee voice is needed. We bring together five empirical papers that (1) outline antecedent conditions of why some leaders solicit voice while others do not (i.e., informal status and employee mobility), (2) specify the necessary leader behaviors with a focus on communication (e.g., collective language) and its mediators, (3) point to boundary conditions in the link between leadership and voice (e.g., when leader liking impedes voice). We draw on a diverse set of studies that provide insight across different field (e.g., health care, R&D teams) and experimental settings. Prof. Elizabeth Morrison, a pioneer in the study of employee voice, will serve as the discussant to lead an interactive group discussion and outline a future research agenda to advance our understanding of voice and its meaning for organizational effectiveness.